


Tell Him Yourself

by ElDiablito_SF



Series: Lightbringer Verse [13]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: But she's really cute okay, M/M, There's a smol child, Thomas is so gross, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 18:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14195175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElDiablito_SF/pseuds/ElDiablito_SF
Summary: Flint, Thomas, and Silver descend upon Madi's island and Thomas makes a spectacle of himself.





	Tell Him Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Anon said to me: "I wish you would write a fic where... we get to see Thomas (and maybe James too) fawning over Mimi" and I said to myself "Self, if you do this, you will lose all street cred." So I did it... but with a twist ;)

For a man who’d been through enough shit to fill a number of novels (compared to Woodes Rogers’ _one_ , may he rot in pieces), Silver sure had failed at thickening his own skin. Not against such an assault, either way. The little girl with a mop of wild curls and sapphire eyes ran right up to them and wrapped her little arms around one of James’ knees, proclaiming “Yams!” and Silver’s heart melted like butter under the island sun. 

“Jesus Christ, she’s _adorable_!” Thomas squealed next to him. “My goodness, you are growing so big, Mimi, soon you’ll be carrying _me_ on your shoulders,” he said, picking the little girl up and placing her over one of his broad shoulders as he spoke. The girl laughed and her tiny fingers threaded through Thomas’ graying hair. “She’s incredible,” Thomas sighed, playing with her feet. “James, look at her toes! I’ve never seen such cute toesies! And she has her father’s ears and curls,” he went on, not even looking at the girl at this point as his eyes met Silver’s, like some sort of pointed challenge.

Silver coughed and averted his gaze. It was one thing to make a spectacle out of himself over a child, but he didn’t have to stand there in Madi’s camp and watch Thomas making a spectacle out of himself at _his_ expense.

“She has her father’s beautiful eyes too,” he heard James say and glared at him in recompense.

“Well, hopefully she has her mother’s brains,” Silver muttered. “So she can choose better companions than I have.”

“Her mother’s partnering choices aren’t so exceptional,” Thomas scoffed and immediately booped Mimi on the nose. “She is so _cute_! She’s the cutest! James, can we keep her? You’re Madi’s husband, you can just take her, right?”

“I can hear you,” Madi said, coming up in turn to give each of the three men a welcome kiss. “Grandpa Thomas is about to get banned from my island.”

“Hey!”

“Let him play,” James said with a benevolent smile, taking Madi by the arm. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Madi grinned back, her teeth flashing like pearls in the sunlight. “ _Husband_.” 

“Earsies!” Thomas exclaimed behind them. “Like the tiny mouse who sleeps in my bed!”

Madi laughed, “Thomas, don’t! You’re terrible. I don’t think I can quite take it.”

Neither could Silver. He wondered why the earth had not just opened up to swallow him whole. As he watched Madi and James saunter arm in arm away, Silver called after them, “Is it really a good idea to leave him alone with the child?”

“He’s not alone. You’re there!” Madi called back.

“And I happen to be an excellent nanny,” Silver said throwing up his arms in surrender. 

“Nosey!” Thomas announced booping the laughing girl again.

“Nosey!” she replied.

“Tell daddy you love him,” Thomas said, turning the little girl around to face Silver. 

“Oh my god, what are you doing?” Silver asked with growing terror. 

“So-called Grandpa has puked endlessly just for the privilege of coming here and teaching you all the important things,” Thomas whispered into the little girl’s tiny ear. “She looks so much like you, John, I’m going to eat her whole.”

“ _Please_.” 

Madi and James were both traitors, Silver realized. This was all part of some kind of delayed but elaborate revenge. Something so draconian only Captain Flint would’ve conjured it up.

***

“So, Thomas has entirely lost his mind over Silver,” Flint was saying, reclining on the couch in Madi’s room, while she lovingly put away the new books he'd brought from Bristol.

“Has he?” Madi laughed. “Well, then I suppose he’s in good company.”

“He came all this way here, green with nausea the entire time, the poor thing, and for the sole purpose of making sure John doesn’t get it into his head to remain.”

“Why would he want to remain here?” Madi asked, pushing a cup of freshly brewed tea towards James. “He has a home with you in Bristol.”

“Oh you know Silver,” Flint shrugged. “He’s always lived with one foot out the door.” He frowned at his own choice of words. “That’s a terrible analogy.”

“Oh I don’t know, he seems to throw himself into relationships both feet in.”

“Madi…”

“As long as he doesn’t lose his head,” she said with a sparkle in her eye.

“It is Thomas who’s losing his head,” James pointed outside from where Thomas’ voice carried on the breeze extolling Mimi’s fingers and toes, one at a time. “I think he loves John more than he loves me,” he added with a pensive stroke of his beard. “It’s always like that with a new love. Everything is shiny and exciting. And the things the two of them get up to when I’m not there, well, let’s just say we’re fortunate the house is still standing.”

“You’re a terrible gossip, husband mine.”

“You have _no_ idea.”

***

“And one day, your daddy James is going to teach you how to ride horsie,” Thomas was saying. “It’s a lot like riding on my shoulders, only you can’t exactly ride me into battle like a fierce Amazon.”

“Oh I don’t know, you’re pretty sturdy and resilient,” Silver muttered.

“Are you really going to flirt with me like that in front of your little daughter, John?”

“You started it.”

“Tell daddy you love him, Mimi,” Thomas said with steel resolve in his eyes.

“Uv you,” the little girl said as she played with the buckles on Thomas’ boots.

“Good girl.”

“Tell him yourself, you coward,” Silver shook his head and pulled Mimi into his own lap. “I won’t let you use my child as some kind of a weird surrogate for your repressed emotions.”

“I’ve already told you I love you, and I’m going to keep saying it until you believe it or my tongue falls off, whichever’s first. I love you, John Silver.”

“Shut up, you old fool.” Silver blushed with his entire body. “Besides, she looks more like her mother.”

The sound of shuffling steps crept up behind them and James’ and Madi’s shadows fell across their laps.

“So,” Madi’s voice held the note of amusement, “How many huts am I asking to prepare for the three of you this time?”

“One,” the three men answered in unison.

Madi and Thomas were laughing like a pair of co-conspirators. Mimi crawled over Silver’s shoulder and demanded “Yams!” again, so he rose to hand the little girl over to James, who pressed her close to his heart and placed a kiss on her chubby cheek. 

“She would be a reason to stay,” James whispered, looking at Silver with soft eyes and a softer smile.

“Yeah,” Silver agreed as he reached out and brushed a strand of gray-streaked lock of fiery red hair out of James’ eye. “But I still have two valid reasons to go back home.”


End file.
